The Impacts of Different Air Pollutants on Domestic and Inbound Tourism in China

Xiaowei Xu, Daxin Dong, Yilun Wang and Shiying Wang
Additional contact information
Xiaowei Xu: School of Business Administration, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu 611130, China
Daxin Dong: School of Business Administration, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu 611130, China
Yilun Wang: School of Business Administration, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu 611130, China
Shiying Wang: School of Business Administration, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu 611130, China

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 24, 1-15

Abstract: Previous studies have reported that air pollution negatively affects the tourism industry. This paper attempted to answer the following question: among different air pollutants, which one acts as the most adverse factor? The study was based on a sample of panel data covering 337 Chinese cities for the period between 2007 and 2016. Four pollutant indicators were inspected: PM 2 . 5 (particulate matter 2.5 micrometers or less in size), PM 10 (particulate matter 10 micrometers or less in size), SO 2 (sulfur dioxide), and NO 2 (nitrogen dioxide). It was found that PM 2 . 5 had a significantly negative impact on both domestic and inbound tourist arrivals. Regarding the other three pollutant indicators, except for the negative influence of NO 2 on inbound tourist arrivals, no statistically significant impact was found. This study suggests that tourism policy makers should primarily focus on PM 2 . 5 , when considering the nexus between air quality and tourism development. According to our estimates, the negative impact of PM 2 . 5 on tourism is substantial. If the PM 2 . 5 concentration in the ambient air increases by 1 μ g/m 3 (= 0.001 mg/m 3 ), domestic and inbound tourist arrivals will decline by 0.482% and 1.227%, respectively. These numbers imply an average reduction of 81,855 person-times in annual domestic tourist arrivals and 12,269 in inbound tourist arrivals in each city.

Keywords: air pollution; PM 2.5; PM 10; SO 2; NO 2; tourist arrivals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/24/5127/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/24/5127/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:24:p:5127-:d:298263

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().